Amnesty International supports opposition rally to be held in Moscow

Activists from the international human rights organization Amnesty International said they supported the opposition rally in central Moscow.

Activists from the international human rights organization Amnesty International said they supported the opposition rally in central Moscow.

The Moscow Mayor's Office has permitted opposition activists of the protest actions committee to hold a march of 20,000 people from Pushkinskaya Square along the boulevards to the Turgenevskaya Square. The purpose of the rally is to support in particular suspects of the case on large-scale unrest at Moscow's Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012.

"Russian supporters of Amnesty International will participate in the march in support of Bolotnaya [Square case] prisoners, which is scheduled for October 27," Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday.

"Amnesty International supporters will participate in the rally in order to express their solidarity with prisoners of conscience and to demand all defendants in the Bolotnaya case get justice," the statement said.

On October 3, Amnesty International said it urged that all those who were not involved in violent actions during large-scale protests in Moscow on May 6, 2012 but went on trial over the Bolotnaya Square case should be released immediately.

Amnesty International said it recognized three suspects in the Bolotnaya Square case - Vladimir Akimenkov, Artyom Savyolov and Mikhail Kosenko - as prisoners of conscience.

"Court hearings regarding the actions of other defendants in the case into the May 6, 2012 events continue. They are probably prisoners of conscience as well," the statement said.